Going shopping for your garden is super-exciting and fun at any time of the year, whether you are buying bedding plants, shrubs, turf or trees! But at Anna’s Gardens, at this time of year, we go crazy about shopping for fruit trees for our customers.
When you are shopping for plants there are many things to take into consideration, and not, as some people think, just the way the plant looks. In-fact most plants that look great at the nursery are already past their prime! For fruit trees, there are even more considerations.
Many of the factors are fairly obvious, such as soil type of your garden, position of the tree (sun or shade … north/south facing), size of the tree and size of the garden.
With fruit trees there are some more technical things to consider. You need to check on the fertilisation situation with the tree. Fruit trees need to be pollenated but there is a science to this and you need to know how many trees you will need in order for this to happen successfully. Choosing the right size for your garden is also crucial as if you have to prune your tree too much in order to keep it manageable then it will not produce abundant fruit.
These days there are many, many varieties of most fruit trees including lots of dwarf trees, and even some which can be successfully grown in pots. There are also different growing techniques for managing the trees but maximising the fruit. So doing the research is crucial if you are going to enjoy a rich harvest of fruit from your garden.
My advice is to use the internet and do as much research as possible. This short film explains some of the things to consider.
Finally, if you are buying a fruit tree which already has leaves or flowers…. then these will most likely NOT produce fruit for you this year.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to do the research yourself, then please give me a call as I get VERY excited about shopping and would love to help you make the right choices.
We are in the last few moments of this Spring for the potentially successful planting of fruit trees. So call your gardener now before it is too late.
Anna.
